SCIENTISTS HAVE ANNOUNCED plans for an ambitious new spacecraft which will fly closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has ever gone before.

The European Space Agency has formally adopted proposals to build and launch a craft known as the Solar Orbiter, which will travel within 42 million kilometres (a mere 26 million miles) of our nearest star.

The craft, which will launch in 2017, will collect particles being propelled off the Sun for analysis – and is expect to cost around €1 billion.

The ESA hoped the mission would provide an insight into how those particles – known as the ‘solar wind’ – are generated.

The project will be in collaboration with NASA, which the BBC says is to provide two instruments for the probe, and for the rocket which will send the craft on its way.

Yesterday’s ESA meeting, which ratified the decision to go forward with the orbiter project, also saw agreements to examine two other topics: dark energy and dark matter.

The latter study will include the launch of a new telescope, Euclid, which will be able to observe parts of the universe which are some 10 billion light years away – showing events that took place when the universe, now around 13.75 billion years old, was in its relative infancy.

The ideas for both projects are the result of a ‘Cosmic Vision’ programme which is planning ESA’s forthcoming projects until the year 2025.